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FREDERICTON - While city staff scramble to make the Peel Plaza project a reality, a spokesperson with Supply and Services Department says the provincial courthouse is a go regardless.

Chrystiane Mallaley said construction will begin later this winter, and as far as the department is concerned, the city's plans to build a new police station and parking garage on the same site have not changed.

"The courthouse design has been the product of collaboration and good faith with the city," Mallaley said. "The design has included those elements that were meant to be shared between the two projects, including the holding cells and parking."

The $45-million Peel Plaza project hit a serious rough patch on December 16 - the deadline for three private national firms to submit bids on the work.

None of the firms that the city had short-listed submitted a bid.

But Bill Edwards, the city's project manager, insists it's not a dead deal.